Benin: Four soldiers killed in attacks at Burkina Faso border

West Africa’s fragile security situation has once again been undermined as four Beninese soldiers were killed at Burkina Faso’s border, according to RFI and agencies on May 27th.

The soldiers were killed overnight in the Kourou Koualou, situated over 700km north of Cotonou, between May 25th and 26th; the soldiers were from the defence and security forces.

Several hundred armed men on motorcycles targeted two military positions; soldiers from Operation Mirador returned fire, with a high-ranking officer stating that the terrorists “suffered many losses.”

Kourou Koualou is a border area between Benin and Burkina Faso that covers over 70 square kilometres; Benin also borders Niger to the north, where a jihadist raid killed 15 soldiers in March.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the May 25th and 26th attack, the al-Qaeda affiliated JNIM is active in the border region and has previously killed dozens of soldiers.

Benin has blamed rising Islamist violence on a spillover from Burkina Faso and Niger, where JNIM and the Islamic State are particularly active.

Jihadists have become increasingly entrenched in the border region between Benin, Niger and Nigeria; this led Benin and Nigeria to announce plans for cross-border security cooperation in February.

ECOWAS, a regional bloc that Benin is part of, announced plans in March to develop a West African counterterrorism force to address Islamist insurgencies.

Despite the shared fight against terrorism, Niger and its junta-led Sahel allies, Burkina Faso and Mali, have accused Benin and the Ivory Coast of sponsoring Islamist terrorism to destabilise the Sahel.

All five countries are former French colonies that are struggling to contain growing jihadist violence; data from the Global Terrorism Index indicated that the Sahel accounted for nearly half of terror-related deaths in 2025.

The Sahel allies have rejected ECOWAS and are founding members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a cooperation pact designed to counter terrorism through shared military and intelligence resources.

Niger implicated France, Benin and the Ivory Coast when Niamey’s International Airport was attacked in January, despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the attack.

Despite recent Benin-Niger tensions, it is hoped that the appointment of Romuald Wadagni as Beninese president will lead to an easing of tensions between the historic allies.

Maghrebi has contacted Benin’s Ministry of Defence for comment on the May 25th and 26th attacks, but has not received a response at the time of publication.

RFI and agencies, Maghrebi.org